Midnight parties in a cowshed, frolics in a swimming pool and not a sponsor in sight, Standon Calling has a magic line-up, and even fairies to get you going in the morning. Tis true!

Now this one has us rubbing our hands together in excitement. It’s not just the music that is getting us hot under the collar – although the line up is pretty electrifying. Standon Calling has a well earned reputation for having its finger on the new music pulse, and this years festival is no exception. It’s also because of the care and attention to detail that Standon has put into their event, once again highlighting the difference between the sprawling, amorphous and messy mega-festivals and their small -but perfectly formed boutique counterparts.

Danish collective Efterklang will be playing at Standon Calling

As will Telepathe, who we discovered last year. Read our coverage of them here.

As we mentioned earlier, a lot of love, time and energy has gone into planning Standon and making sure that it not only meets, but improves upon the check list that a seasoned festival goer might have. Living up to their boutique credentials, the thoughtful folk understand that you can love music and still want to maintain basic hygienic standards, so they have laid on extra (and ‘top class’, no less) showers and toilets for the campers, and for those who are bringing water-wings – always be safe, kids – Standon are in the unique position of having a swimming pool at their disposal to offer up. But here’s what I like best about the Standon experience, and I could probably write a festival preview on this basis alone; the Standon ‘fairies’ leave a revitalising drink outside each guests tent in the morning. Seeing that my drink of choice at a festival is Vodka and Berocca, I can’t think of anything more thoughtful, necessary or appropriate for a three day festival. Note to other festivals, take your cue from Standon!

Pack your cossie for a dip in Standon’s pool

Standon Calling is held from 6th – 8th August, in Standon, Hertfordshire, around 40 miles outside of London. There are several options for tickets; a full adult weekend ticket costs £95 (a Sunday day pass is also available). Check the website for details on tickets and various options for camping, including tipis and yurts.

Standon Calling is also running a competition that will appeal to a huge section of our readers.They are inviting designers, artists and illustrators to design a t-shirt, with the winning entry being turned into festival merchandise. The competition will be judged by a panel of creatives and illustrators. Here’s a bit more information from the people behind Standon:

This year’s theme is ‘Murder on the Standon Express’ so think murder, mystery, mayhem and madness. A panel of established arts professionals will judge the designs, with the winner receiving two VIP festival packages including boutique camping, as well as seeing their T-shirt printed. The winning artist will also be featured on the festival website. This isn’t a money-making exercise, so any proceeds will be donated to charity.

How to enter
-Please email your design to design@standoncalling.com before the 21st June 2010 as a moderately high j-peg (at least 1500-pixels wide). Although please note that the final artwork will need to be supplied as either a colour separated PSD file or a vector/bitmap based Illustrator file.
-Your design should contain a maximum of three colours.
-Your design should not contain any copyrighted material.
-Please don’t include any fancy pants printing techniques, such as glow in dark, fuzzy felt or marmite.